Our weekly roundup of the best new Android apps and games is back, ending a short-lived experiment to take it monthly – several readers said they preferred not to have to wait weeks at a time for recommendations, which was a fair enough request.

This week, there are some useful utilities, fitness and photography apps, as well as a selection of polished, addictive games.

Prices are correct at the time of writing, with “IAP” indicating whether in-app purchases are used within the app or game. Looking for iPhone and iPad apps instead? That roundup was published earlier in the day.

APPS

In print form, First Focus is a book for babies, with high-contrast pictures and bold shapes to stimulate their senses. This is the app version, with added animation and sounds, from miaowing cats to quacking ducks, and simple interactivity whenever a finger or fist (dribbly or otherwise) taps the screen.

Fiverr describes itself as “the world’s largest marketplace for services” – like an eBay for Stuff You Need Done, rather than products. Its official Android app takes the whole shebang mobile, enabling you to browse listings, check your notifications and give feedback and ratings on the services you’ve used.

It’s a good week for utilities on Android, led by Dollarbird: a very impressive personal finance app for tracking what you spend money on, remind yourself about upcoming bills due, and helping you plan your expenditure whether you’re saving up for a specific purchase, or simply squirrelling money away for a rainy day.

It’s very good timing for the release of this app, given that Google’s Chromecast gadget went on sale in the UK this week. Cast Store is a simple, easy-to-navigate list of all the Chromecast-supporting apps in the Google Play store, sortable by name, rating and time. A handy resource to check what apps work with your new TV-dongle.

Booktrack is a startup that’s been knocking around at books industry conferences for a while, but this may be many readers’ first experience of it. The company’s technology provides soundtracks for ebooks, with thousands available within its app to download and read. And, of course, to listen to.

Described as “chat for dynamic teams”, Fleep is a messaging app with a firmly-corporate focus, whether you’re chatting one-on-one with your boss, or in a group discussion with colleagues. It supports file attachments, and in a clever feature can loop people in via email if they don’t use the Fleep app themselves.

This is the latest fitness-tracking app from online sports site Tribesports, designed to take in data from your various activities, including running, riding and walking. Its developer is hoping that sheer breadth – it supports more than 900 individual sports and exercises – will help it stand out from the leagues of competitors.

This is an app from charity Cancer Research here in the UK, based on its annual Race for Life event. The app enables you to keep tabs on donations from friends sponsoring your efforts, post images and updates letting them know how you're getting on, and get quick information on your upcoming race.

FlipBeats reckons it’s the “best way to listen to music on Android”, which is quite a claim. It looks good though: a polished app for playing songs stored on the device, with an emphasis on detailed EQ settings and tweaking the configuration. Fairly complex features, but with a friendly user interface to get around them.

Yes, there is life beyond Instagram in the filtered photos space, even if nothing is quite as big as Facebook’s photography app. iSupr8 is about creating faux-vintage videos, complete with virtual “dirt, dust and grain”. You can shoot or import video from your device, sharing the results. In-app purchases are used to buy specific effects.

More audio here, but this time focused on podcasts rather than music. It can play audio and video podcasts, create playlists, and present new episodes in a neat “inbox” format, with simple features to manage your various subscriptions. A separate licence to use the full version costs £2.78.

Finally in apps, the official Android client for Al Jazeera’s US arm, offering articles, photos and an “audio commuter” feature to read out the day’s news – good for keeping up to speed on the way to or from work. Everything can be shared to social networks too.

GAMES

The Broken Sword games are marvellous: engrossing adventures that have navigated the path from PC to mobile with aplomb. This latest game continues developer Revolution Software’s run, sending you on the hunt for a stolen painting with puzzles and a well-worked storyline to hold your attention.

QuizUp was a big hit on iOS last year, and now it’s available for Android too. It’s an addictive trivia quiz – or rather a collection of trivia quizzes covering more than 200,000 questions and 400 topics. It’s built around multiplayer challenges, so you can see how your wits compare to friends’. Super-moreish.

Talking of moreish… Threes! is another mobile game guaranteed to make you go deep down the rabbit-hole of just-one-more-go addiction. It involves swiping number tiles to make matches: adding 1s and 2s together, then 3s and upwards. It’s brutally simple, yet once you’re in, you’ll find it hard to put your phone down.

This high-production adventure is based on the How To Train Your Dragon films: a massively multiplayer RPG where you, yes, train a dragon – while flying, racing and interacting with other players online. It runs across mobile and Facebook, with a healthy community of dragon-trainers already playing.

“Procedural atmospheric mining” is a new genre to me, but Mines of Mars makes it very appealing. Claiming inspiration from Metroid and Motherload, it sees you exploring an underground world (well, planet: Mars) picking up weapons and items as you go. It’s got lots of depth, pun not entirely intended.

Lego’s latest mobile title is a racing game, with three not-so-bricky-actually vehicles to drive round an indoor racing track, collecting power-ups and earning trophies. It’s promotional for the real-world Lego Technic range, so there are no in-app purchases: the idea is that players may end up buying the Black Champion, Desert Racer or Race Truck in model form.

Konami’s Metal Gear Solid V: Ground Zeroes is fresh out for console – you can read Rich Stanton’s five-star review here – and it’s also got an official companion app on Android. It’s described as a “support terminal” used to show maps and call for support helicopters when playing on the console edition – along with music and information to browse at your leisure.

Finally, this cross between a digital book and a game, created by Steve Jackson (of Fighting Fantasy and Games Workshop fame). It’s an adventure delivered mainly by text, but with your choices influencing what happens next. The idea may be familiar, but it’s the story and writing that will draw you in.